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Music Theory - Blog Posts
Music Theory and Dream Moons
Quick Prospit or Derse Dreamer Test:
Which song do you prefer?
SBURB OST by The Homestuck Fan Musicians
SBURB OST by The Homestuck Fan Musicians
"Lulling Lutescent" = Prospit Dreamer "Lavender Lullaby" = Derse Dreamer
Elaborated hypothesis involving music theory:
Prospit Dreamers generally gravitate toward music with major tonality, which has a lighter, happier, airy feel.
Derse Dreamers generally gravitate toward music with minor tonality, which has a darker, melancholic, heavier feel.
"Lulling Lutescent" is an example of major tonality, while "Lavender Lullaby" is in minor.
here are the results:
c# min:
https://on.soundcloud.com/vn4Ze
f# min:
https://on.soundcloud.com/deFFT
g# min:
https://on.soundcloud.com/jvpf8
b min:
https://on.soundcloud.com/bAWPd
d# maj:
https://on.soundcloud.com/z8Ua4
Music as Metaphor
In the video above, India sits at the piano, playing a soft melody to herself. In this moment, she is alone, reflecting on her predicament. She has a violent darkness in her that at this moment, causes her more sadness than anything else. This is her meditation.
Charlie enters, the looming figure that is representative of this darkness made flesh. Charlie is outwardly violent, unashamedly manipulative, and takes immense joy in his cruelty. Throughout the film, he attempts to indoctrinate India into this ideology. He interrupts her melody with the kind of deep, foreboding chords you would expect, which India futilely attempts to rebuff with her original, soft melody. The following scene perfectly illustrates the relationship between the two characters without a word being said.
While India is still technically in control of the song, Charlie is controlling it’s tone and atmosphere with these dark bass notes. Much like in life, he is trying to get under her skin, and seduce her into his psychosis. Note how he ever-so-gently let’s their hands touch 19 seconds in, daring her to get closer to him, daring her to let him lead. Perhaps excited by this touch, India gives in, and at this point the song becomes a duet.
This is music as metaphor.
Closing her eyes, India allows the music to naturally progress, lowering her defenses, entertaining the idea of harmony. Charlie brilliantly picks up on this moment of weakness, and utilities it to completely take control, changing the music dramatically as well as closing the gap between them physically. She loses all her autonomy in the song, and for a moment plays nothing. She should not have thought cooperation would come so easily.
Unwilling to accept this, she herself makes a bold move; changing the mood of the song. She enters with a lighter, much more playful flourish, as if this is all a game or competition. Look at how she looks at Charlie; she wants to know just how much she can control him, to what extent she can lead (or equally, to what extent he’ll let her lead). She studies his face intensely, desperately curious how he will react. she has been baited, and by engaging Charlie rather than ignoring him, she is already letting him take control. This is especially pertinent given how light and and playful the song has become.
That said, listen to what happens when their eyes meet; however playful, the notes start to sting.
India realises her mistake, and yet again tries to rectify it. However, it is too late, in this moment they connected, and a sad, dark honesty comes out in the song. India knows she is like Charlie, sh knows it but she hates it, and right now she cannot deny it. Charlie realises that he has more power over India now by allowing her to take the lead, and allows her the spiral downwards around the 1:25 mark. He knows what it will lead to; the ostinato.
This is the moment when India and Charlie are truly working together; India allows herself not to lead or follow, but to work in unison with this monster. This is when she has fallen completely under his spell, and she allows herself to. Charlie understands this, and the physical barrier between them completely breaks down. The music grows somewhat sadder as India feels the lust and longing in her grow from this physical contact. She knows what Charlie is. She knows what she is. She cannot help what she wants. This is the closest the two get to having a sex scene in the film, and honestly, it’s an infinitely more effective way of conveying their relationship to one another. Charlie moves out from behind India, knowing his seduction has worked. India closes her eyes, her legs tense, and she is lost in the song.
The song abruptly stops, and there is a clear look of both exhaustion, horror and realisation on India’s face. She pants and takes the silence in. Charlie leans in to kiss her, and also disappears behind her in the shot. When she turns to him, she see’s he was never actually there.
This is the power he holds over her.
Stoker is a fantastic film from one of my favourite working Directors, and I feel this scene perfectly illustrates the idea of music as metaphor in cinema.
Im shure SOMEONE noticed that the fist two lines of Greg and Steven’s love songs both start with the same lines pointing out their (biggest?) insecurities. Just wanted to point it out, because I did NOT make a fool of myself by yelling out loud in public transport after I realised.
It just feels a little ironic when you think about it. He’s spent his entire life surrounded by Gems—beings born with purpose and identity, their purpose and reason for existing decided from the moment they emerge from the ground. Steven trying to mirror the adults (as a child does), but that’s hopeless because Steven is different. As a half-human, he has to grow, learn, and figure out who he’s meant to be over time. He just doesn’t see it because no one tells him otherwise. (Like when he sings, “I’ll fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be when I’m grown,” and I believe he said something along the lines of, “I want to know what I’m for,” when he encountered Cloud Rose?? (Correct me if I’m wrong))
He’s constantly trying to be his mother from his Gem side—partly because everyone expects him to, and partly because it’s the only blueprint of purpose he’s been handed. But on the human side, he’s trying to emulate his father. Greg is the only consistent human influence he’s known, whether it’s wearing Greg’s old, unsold merchandise shirts or adopting his dad’s laid-back, carefree style, down to the flipflops and nutritional, musical habits etc.
It’s bittersweet really.. Even after their disagreement, Steven still clings to Greg as a beacon of what Steven is supposed to be as a human confessing his love (and therefore his music as a guide.) He borrows from his father’s most successful song for the opening lines of his own deeply emotional, personal song. It’s like he’s trying to bridge the gap between what he’s been told he should be and who he’s desperately trying to become?
music theory is hell
what is an e flat 6/3
why are there fractions
i thought this was music not math
can’t believe i have to study “music theory” and “basics”. what do you mean i can’t just 🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵
Keaton Music Typewriter, Circa 1936
The Keaton Music Typewriter, invented around 1936, revolutionized music publishing. With a specialized keyboard for musical symbols, it allowed for quick and accurate typing of sheet music. This innovation significantly sped up the production process, meeting the high demand for printed music in the 1930s.
music theorists how does this make you feel
also it'd be pretty funny if someone were to somehow play this
what are things you could confidently info dump about? if I needed a beginner’s course on something, what could I go to you about?
Why I Love Yuri On Ice: A Brief Lesson in Music Theory
I began learning Yuri On Ice on the piano a couple months ago, and here’s my thoughts on it:
No song, in the 10 years that I have been studying music, has been so enticing, made me so desperate to master it, that I would dedicate as much time and amount of headspace to it that I have for Yuri on Ice.
It is due to such intense concentration and analysis that I began to notice the true beauty of this song, which lies in the music theory weaved between each note. Music theory is like any conspiracy- sometimes it’s there, sometimes it isn’t, and it can be hard to distinguish the red herrings from the true intent of a piece. However, in the case of Yuri on Ice, my theory connected so well to every clue laid out throughout both the song and the show, the thought of it being incorrect never crossed my mind.
First, to understand the theory laid out in song form, it is important to examine it from a visual perspective. The song, Yuri on Ice, comes from the similarly-named anime TV show Yuri!!! On Ice. For anyone that hasn’t seen the show, it tells the tale of Japanese figure skater Yuuri Katsuki, who has reached rock bottom in his career and close to giving up as a skater, until his childhood hero and current competitor Viktor Nikivorof decides to coach him. Together, the two progress through the many rounds of an international skating championship, learning about life, love and each other along the way. It is a simple narrative, but presented masterfully, and the romance between the two is one that is widely beloved by fans all over the world.
As the show is based around figure skating, there are many instances where we see Yuuri perform, each one set to music of some kind. This is where Yuri on Ice comes in. It is introduced as a song written and recorded for Yuuri’s Free Skate Program by a friend of his attending a music conservatory. He specifically requests a song to represent his skating career, highlighting the more recent events of meeting Viktor and renewing his confidence to skate one more time.
Now, unpacking the music theory in all of that may first appear a little difficult, as the main way of understanding a song in media is analyzing where and when it is played. In movies produced by studios like Star Wars or Marvel, there are specific character/moment themes that are played when the characters they represent are onscreen, or even more frivolously, when anything important happens. Unfortunately, in the case of Yuri on Ice, the song is almost exclusively played while Yuuri is performing in competitions, moments that don’t include a whole lot of emotional weight or relevance.
But this doesn’t mean that the theme does not appear elsewhere. Almost every instrumental song throughout the show contains elements of the Yuri on Ice theme (all composed around the main notes Ab, G, F, and Eb), so much so that I find it hard to not consider all of them the same song. It is most prominent in the song Heartbeats, which plays during many important moments between the couple.
Even more important than that, however, is the fact that music theory concerns more than just the placement of a song or theme. The actual notes in a song, and how they are composed to interact with each other, is far more crucial to any meaning it intends to hold.
As I said, Yuri!!! On Ice follows a very specific progression of Yuuri’s connection to Viktor. He starts off alone, meets Viktor, starts working with him (but a bit clumsily), learns to operate in unison, and it all culminates with the two falling in love by the end. The realization that I came to while learning this piece is that the song itself expresses their story perfectly.
To explain, let’s assume that the right hand (which plays the top of the piano) represents Yuuri, and the left represents Viktor. Yuri on Ice starts off with a simple trill played almost entirely by the right hand. There is no backing, no harmony, and the segment is essentially a solo. Just as Yuuri is in the early episodes, it is an isolated sound, with nothing to compliment or amplify it.
After a couple bars of this trill emerges one, resonant bass note. I believe this represents the moment in the show where Viktor and Yuuri cross paths, but do not interact. One brief moment of his presence in Yuuri’s life, and then it’s gone.
Following are a couple more bars of the trill, then, just as Viktor found his way into Yuuri’s life unexpectedly, the left hand returns out of nowhere, joining the right hand to play a fast-paced arpeggio sequence. Despite the emphasis in this being placed on the right hand, both are required to complete the segment, and the left hand works to amplify the sound of the right.
After the arpeggios comes a crossover sequence that truly utilizes both hands. As the right plays the main portion of the melody, the left plays the bass while occasionally crossing over the right to complete the melody. Both hands must be played in perfect unison to achieve the effect of one harmonious tune. By this point, Yuuri and Viktor have begun to work together, falling into place as partners both on and off the ice, and the song expresses how far they’ve come and the beauty that they can create together.
The song essentially continues in that manner for another 3 minutes, every segment relying on both hands to sound complete, just as Viktor and Yuuri needed to remain together to retain their success on the ice and as humans.
In essence, the song Yuri On Ice may not have lyrics to state what it represents, but the evidence is there among the notes if you only know where to look. It’s a love song, as poetic as any other, telling the tale of one of the greatest love stories ever written, without ever having to state that explicitly.
The 7 Scale Modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian.
In any Major Key, the diatonic chord pattern 1-7 is M-m-m-M-M-m-Dim
M: Major
m: Minor
Dim: Dim
To create a Major Scale you have to move in a series of whole steps (whole tone) and half steps (semi tone) starting from the Root Note. A whole tone is moving two spots and a semi tone is moving one spot on the 12 tone scale. The Major Scale pattern is W-W-H-W-W-W-H
W:Whole Step H:Half Step
The musical alphabet goes A-G with sharps & flats in between to create a 12 tone scale.